The project Alfabeletrando and the reading comprehension: evidences from the Cloze Test

Abstract

The literacy stage represents a crucial period for the development of reading and writing skills. The post-pandemic context revealed serious gaps in this process for many Brazilian children. In response to this challenge, the Alfabeletrando Project, developed by the University of Vale do Taquari (Univates) in partnership with municipal departments of education, implemented pedagogical interventions focused on recovering fundamental learning associated with this stage of schooling. The present study aimed to evaluate the progress of students from the 2nd to the 5th year of Elementary Education regarding reading comprehension, understood here as a complex cognitive process involving the construction of mental models from the text. To this end, the Cloze Test was used as a psychometric assessment instrument in 2023 and 2024 across different municipalities. The methodology followed a pre-test and post-test design, with systematic pedagogical interventions conducted during after-school hours between assessment periods. These practices, grounded in attentive and monitored mediation, focused both on consolidating the alphabetic principle and on the structured teaching of reading comprehension through activities aimed at mental model construction and metalinguistic development. The results demonstrated statistically significant advances across all grade levels and municipalities evaluated, evidenced by the consistent increase in median scores between testing periods. The findings reinforce the effectiveness of intentional, systematic, and monitored teaching practices, while also validating the relevance of collaboration between universities and municipalities for strengthening basic education.